Should Children learn about sexual orientations in schools

(Original post by DYKWIA)
im not gay or homophobic. i am just worried about the harms of homosexuality.

You have yet to ever prove that homosexuality is, in any way, harmful.

You intentionally and knowingly advocate for the deprivation of rights for an entire group based on your opinion

Your opinion has yet to ever be supported by true facts, research, or anything of the like

Therefore,

It it with bias, bigotry and homophobia that you have arbitrarily decided, without any substantiated evidentiary basis that (1) homosexuality is harmful; (2) homosexuals are inferior to heterosexuals; (3) homosexual are second class citizens; (4) homosexuals are undeserving of equal rights.

You are, very clearly and unquestionably, extremely biased, bigoted and homophobic

(Original post by DYKWIA)
they should only be taught about heterosexuality tbh. Society shouldn't encourage homosexual behavior. Also, think about the parents of these children who don't want their kids to be taught about homosexuality.

(Original post by pr0view)
Of course heterosexuality is better, all life forms have an ultimate goal of reproduction, heterosexuality is natural and instinctive in most people. Homosexuality on the other hand is a mental illness (and officially for a long time) and all with any sense and courage would accept that, however if someone is homosexual and happy the way they are they should be left be and treated as equals but no way should homosexuality be encouraged.

Homosexuality is most definitely NOT a mental illness. Please show me where it is classified as such. It may have been in the past but psychologists and psychiatrists have revised this because there is no evidence to show that it is in any way a pathology or any other such thing.

(Original post by pr0view)
Of course heterosexuality is better, all life forms have an ultimate goal of reproduction, heterosexuality is natural and instinctive in most people. Homosexuality on the other hand is a mental illness (and officially for a long time) and all with any sense and courage would accept that, however if someone is homosexual and happy the way they are they should be left be and treated as equals but no way should homosexuality be encouraged.

Homosexuality is natural (it occurs in nature, in hundreds of species), it's normal (it's standard for a certain percentage of a species at any one time to be homosexual, about 5-10% in humans) and it's equal to heterosexuality.

I am gay, and I have a 'goal' of children one day as well...the biological urge to have children is present in a large amount of gay people, and missing in a large amount of straight people. The world would be screwed if EVERYONE had loads of kids.

It's NOT a mental illness. Why would it be?? That's a stupid and thoroughly discredited idea. It is natural and normal. It doesn't in itself cause distress, harm, disengagement from reality or anything like any mental illness I know of.

As for 'encourage', no one said that either. Teaching kids that ALL people are equals and are normal and should be treated the exact same, is NOT encouraging anything. I do not believe in encouraging any sexual orientation, gay or straight. People can work out who they are attracted to on their own, but they should know it's totally fine to be either straight or gay

(Original post by pr0view)
Of course heterosexuality is better, all life forms have an ultimate goal of reproduction, heterosexuality is natural and instinctive in most people. Homosexuality on the other hand is a mental illness (and officially for a long time) and all with any sense and courage would accept that, however if someone is homosexual and happy the way they are they should be left be and treated as equals but no way should homosexuality be encouraged.

Do you even know what you're talking about?

(1) Homosexuality is, by the definition of what constitutes a sexual orientation, a sexual orientation

(2) Homosexuality is just the same as heterosexuality, asexuality, bisexuality and so on and so forth - they are all completely acceptable, non-harmful sexual orientations

(3) Sexual orientations, including homosexuality are NOT considered to be mental illnesses. The APA, APA and DSM have long since eliminated homosexuality as mental illness, on the grounds that, it is an expression of sexuality, as a sexual orientation, in just the same way as is heterosexuality.

Nah I hate that, I also hate it when people agree with 'educating' people on drugs and drinking. It is pointless.

The majority of people won't be influenced by a few lessons on sexual orientation in school.
Just as none of us were affected by the little lessons on alcohol/ drug use/ smoking.

What has an effect is the media. If the media just treated homosexuals the exact same as heterosexuals then there'd be a lot less discrimination. And I'm not saying that the media openly discriminates against homosexuality, of course they don't, but if, for example in a drama, there's a gay person, it's more often than not treated as a main story line. The 'coming out' story, the 'my best mate is homophobic but is about to realise that I'm gay' story etc. Or, if it's not from that perspective it's often from the humour perspective ' my camp, fashionable gay best friend always comes on shopping sprees with me and creeps on the hot sales assistant, and bitches about my frenemy with me'.

If, for example, a gay couple were treated in the exact same way as a straight couple then that would be better. No mention of them being gay, no gay stereotype, just a normal gay couple. It's not worth a story line...'cause it's normal.

Educating people on gays is like educating people on racism. It would be like during the 80's educating people in the South about black people. 'Black people are no different to us dear children' etc etc. Lessons like that just highlight a difference.

Yes, because not all children will be exposed to the reality of homosexual relationships so by explaining the idea to them it becomes 'normalised' and hence is less likely to result in bullying later on. Children are a lot more accepting than we give them credit for, because they are still learning about boundaries and cultural norms... including homosexuality as a norm is a step on the right path to reducing homophobia.

As a counter-example, when I was little I had a friend whose Dad only had one leg. I knew this man all my life, so to me the way he was made was totally normal and not even worth a second glance. Once I asked him why he was like that and after he told me he'd had meningitis as a child I just accepted it and went back to playing with my friend. When he took us to the swimming pool all the other children would stare and point, and even some of the adults would be open mouthed as he used to hop round the edge on his one remaining real leg. But I didn't understand why everyone was staring because to me that was totally normal.

Hopefully one day all kids will be as confused by homophobia as I was by all those other kids staring!

(Original post by RandZul'Zorander)
Homosexuality is most definitely NOT a mental illness. Please show me where it is classified as such. It may have been in the past but psychologists and psychiatrists have revised this because there is no evidence to show that it is in any way a pathology or any other such thing.

Its not classed as a mental illness any more officially because its not very PC. Its fairly obvious to anyone who understands the basics of evolution that homosexuality is definitely not inherited or favourable for passing on ones genes, but is instead the result of a unhealthy chemical balance in the brain otherwise know as a mental illness.

(Original post by pr0view)
Its not classed as a mental illness any more officially because its not very PC. Its fairly obvious to anyone who understands the basics of evolution that homosexuality is definitely not inherited or favourable for passing on ones genes, but is instead the result of a unhealthy chemical balance in the brain otherwise know as a mental illness.

Wow... You are completely ignorant and know nothing about heredity. Good job

(1) In fact, according to twin studies and sibling studies, there IS a strong genetic factor (i.e. it is inherited in some way)

(2) If it's NOT something that is inherited and is a 'mental illness' why is that some 250+ animal species display such behavior? Are you going to tell me they all have the exact same mental illness?

(Original post by pr0view)
Its not classed as a mental illness any more officially because its not very PC. Its fairly obvious to anyone who understands the basics of evolution that homosexuality is definitely not inherited or favourable for passing on ones genes, but is instead the result of a unhealthy chemical balance in the brain otherwise know as a mental illness.

No it isn't classed as a mental illness because the experts has shown that it doesn't fit the standards to be called such. They also see how it is equatable to heterosexuality. You have no evidence that shows it is the result of a chemical 'imbalance' and your claim that it doesn't make evolutionary sense has been debunked by many biologists and evolutionists.

(Original post by pr0view)
Its not classed as a mental illness any more officially because its not very PC. Its fairly obvious to anyone who understands the basics of evolution that homosexuality is definitely not inherited or favourable for passing on ones genes, but is instead the result of a unhealthy chemical balance in the brain otherwise know as a mental illness.

Even if that were true, which I don't believe it is - why does it matter? We can't sustain a population growing at this rate anyway. Would you attack a heterosexual couple who have chosen not to have kids? It's an absurd argument.

(Original post by Jimbo1234)
Nope.
It has never been taught before and everything has worked out fine.
The prejudice is there not due to people being misinformed, but due to people being *******s. If someone is different then someone is going to dislike them for that. Nothing you can say or do will change them.

I'd disagree with this. Of course, people are going to (intitially) react to things different to themselves, but that doesn't always have to lead to hatred and doesn't excuse discrimination. People being ****ers generally comes from a lack of understanding, irrational fear and misinformation, and whilst it's difficult to change some adults, the best we can hope for is to raise tolerant/accepting children.

I wouldn't necessarilly say everything's worked out fine, either. Perhaps you haven't noticed so much because you're not lgbt, but there is still widespread stigma against homosexuality, even within homosexuals. Lots of gay people I know beat themselves up about and denied being gay because it was instilled in them that boys should like girls and vice versa. And then, once they'd come to terms with their sexuality and mustered the courage to come out they had to suffer torrents of abuse for being gay all the way through secondary school. Homophobic bullying still in several cases leads to suicide and lgbt have an extremely disproportionate suicide rate compared to their straight peers and this indicates to me that although acceptance of homosuxuality has come a long way over the years, not everything has worked out fine.

(Original post by SilverArch)
Homosexuality is natural (it occurs in nature, in hundreds of species), it's normal (it's standard for a certain percentage of a species at any one time to be homosexual, about 5-10% in humans) and it's equal to heterosexuality.

I am gay, and I have a 'goal' of children one day as well...the biological urge to have children is present in a large amount of gay people, and missing in a large amount of straight people. The world would be screwed if EVERYONE had loads of kids.

It's NOT a mental illness. Why would it be?? That's a stupid and thoroughly discredited idea. It is natural and normal. It doesn't in itself cause distress, harm, disengagement from reality or anything like any mental illness I know of.

As for 'encourage', no one said that either. Teaching kids that ALL people are equals and are normal and should be treated the exact same, is NOT encouraging anything. I do not believe in encouraging any sexual orientation, gay or straight. People can work out who they are attracted to on their own, but they should know it's totally fine to be either straight or gay

Homosexuality does occur, I will not dispute that and of course it occurs in animals, are we not animals ourselves?

You may want children and so may many other homosexuals. Some heterosexual people may not desire to have children themselves, i would regard that also to be a mental illness but that debate is for another day.

Why I believe homosexuality to be a mental illness is fairly simple really. The purpose of life is to reproduce. The primary purpose of sex is again to reproduce. So why would the human brain naturally encourage a person to be sexually attracted to and pursue sexual intercourse with someone/thing it cannot reproduce with. Clearly this is a result of a chemical imbalance that is making somebody attracted to something the shouldn't be naturally.

The strange thing with calling homosexuality a mental illness is that most people would want to be "cured" if the had a mental illness like depression. Whereas homosexuals can be perfectly happy with the way they are so saying they are mentally ill is bound to seem quite aggressive. I have personally no problem with gay people but i believe they are mentally ill.

What else scientifically would be a reason for been homosexual? I am happy to debate this.

(Original post by pr0view)
Homosexuality does occur, I will not dispute that and of course it occurs in animals, are we not animals ourselves?

You may want children and so may many other homosexuals. Some heterosexual people may not desire to have children themselves, i would regard that also to be a mental illness but that debate is for another day.

Why I believe homosexuality to be a mental illness is fairly simple really. The purpose of life is to reproduce. The primary purpose of sex is again to reproduce. So why would the human brain naturally encourage a person to be sexually attracted to and pursue sexual intercourse with someone/thing it cannot reproduce with. Clearly this is a result of a chemical imbalance that is making somebody attracted to something the shouldn't be naturally.

The strange thing with calling homosexuality a mental illness is that most people would want to be "cured" if the had a mental illness like depression. Whereas homosexuals can be perfectly happy with the way they are so saying they are mentally ill is bound to seem quite aggressive. I have personally no problem with gay people but i believe they are mentally ill.

What else scientifically would be a reason for been homosexual? I am happy to debate this.

Again what makes you so sure it is a chemical imbalance? No evidence has been shown to suggest this to be the case. And since it was classified as a mental illness I am willing to bet there were studies on it.

As far as evolutionary theory goes. Homosexuality is seen as a possible population control mechanism. Which isn't a means to call it a mental disorder. It would be something that is completely natural and serves a specific evolutionary function. One that encourages the continuation of a population. See this thread - http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/show....php?t=1952834

(Original post by Chaofan88)
I'd disagree with this. Of course, people are going to (intitially) react to things different to themselves, but that doesn't always have to lead to hatred and doesn't excuse discrimination. People being ****ers generally comes from a lack of understanding, irrational fear and misinformation, and whilst it's difficult to change some adults, the best we can hope for is to raise tolerant/accepting children.

I wouldn't necessarilly say everything's worked out fine, either. Perhaps you haven't noticed so much because you're not lgbt, but there is still widespread stigma against homosexuality, even within homosexuals. Lots of gay people I know beat themselves up about and denied being gay because it was instilled in them that boys should like girls and vice versa. And then, once they'd come to terms with their sexuality and mustered the courage to come out they had to suffer torrents of abuse for being gay all the way through secondary school. Homophobic bullying still in several cases leads to suicide and lgbt have an extremely disproportionate suicide rate compared to their straight peers and this indicates to me that although acceptance of homosuxuality has come a long way over the years, not everything has worked out fine.

You clearly do not understand how thick some people are.
These people don't hate gays because they are gay, they hate them because they are a minority. These are the thugs who are just bigots and hate anyone who is not identical to themselves. They are too stupid and angry to be reasoned with.

And it has worked out fine. Gays are not lynched, have equal rights etc. Any minority will always face persecution from idiots, and the lgbt community need to realises this sad truth. Either bring in eugenics or accept persecution from morons.

What is there really to teach that cant be summed up in a few sentences anyway? Its better to learn through your own attractions and desires, not to be told in a cold textbook fashion, most likely from a straight guy that doesnt know anything about how a gay person felt when they discovered it etc

(Original post by SilverArch)
I believe you when you say you aren't gay and I'll leave it up to you to define your own sexual orientation (for now )

However, you are a homophobe. You have an irrational fear of and feelings of being uncomfortable around gay people. Evidenced by your own statements of feeling icky (my choice of word) around openly gay people, and by your odd seeking out of every 'gay' thread on TSR

So what if I feel uncomfortable with openly gay people? I don't want to oppress them.

Telling children that hetero is better is a lie. It isn't better, it's equal. If children believe straight is better, they will become intolerant adults, and that will have a negative effect on their lives and on the lives of people around them. I believe in raising happy, tolerant, compassionate children who become tolerant aduts, who other people want to be around

It is better. Heterosexuals can have children more easily and on average they live healthier, better lives.

(Original post by RandZul'Zorander)
Uh...no? What is there to feel uncomfortable about? Its not like its any different from how things are now except that they can be themselves and not feel like they aren't healthy.

Because they will come out and we will suddenly have more gay people on the street. As I've said, I have no issue with gay people who keep their sexuality private.

(Original post by NYU2012)
It doesn't cause distress to the PERSON in question. Whether or not you like it is completely irrelevant.

Why can't I have a say? Why do my feelings on this not matter? I'm not the only person with my 'homophobic' views.

A higher percentage of gays do NOT get HIV. It's only in the US that that is true.

Not only that, the heterosexual rate of infection in the US will soon surpass the gay rate of infection.

How many times have been over the fact that your HIV argument is completely (1) irrelevant; (2) ignorant; and (3) a distortion of true facts, in an attempt to try to support your clearly biased and un-researched opinions

The US is the only important country here tbh, other developed nations have similar statistics.

'The things you say are so completely ignorant it's astounding.'

(1) Homosexuality isn't a 'preference' - it's a sexual orientation

(2) In case you missed what the meaning of the word preference actually is, I've included that for you below:

Preference: a greater liking for one alternative over another or others

Given the definition of preference, homosexuality isn't a preference because it isn't a GREATER liking for one alternative over another - it's a sexual orientation because homosexuals are attracted to ONLY members of the same sex. Therefore, not a preference

(4) You cannot have an 'unconscious choice' - what would that even be? Do you even know what the definition of choice is? In case you don't, I've included that for you below:

Choice: an act of selecting or making a decision when faced with two or more

You cannot, by definition, have an unconscious choice because a choice requires a conscious decision to be made.

"unconscious choice" is, quite literally, an oxymoron to say the least - an utter impossibility, in all actuality.